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It wasn’t a bad walk, with the weather turned from summer heat to pleasant sun and autumn breeze. Being out of uniform for the weekend, and out and about on the city, helped Björn with feeling a little more pleasant and a lot more human. Having a friend along made all the difference, though, and quelled any sinking premonitions that because they were meeting Talia something awful had to happen. This was going to be fun, Björn assured himself. And it hadn’t been any issue to get his roommate to come along. Of the two of them, Colin looked ready for a catwalk, Björn thought. The little blonde ‘humanized’ better than slacks and a fitted button down (which was about the extent of Björn’s fashion choices outside of his chain necklace.

He’d messaged Talia a few days before, with the time, day and the sports center, and would she be willing to meet them there. The place was large, since it served the metropolitan area. They could go to batting cages, an indoor ice skating rink, a minigolf, blacklight-bowling, or lazer tag. It was enough options that everyone could feel on a level of ridiculous and get both wins and losses in.
“Have you been here before, Colin?” The sports center was looming into view, and crossing the parking lot full of soccer-mom SUVs made it more poignant that Hillworth students, even old enough to be able to legally drive, were less privileged than most elementary kids. “You’ve lived in Destiny City for a while?”

“Talia drives a silver civic, if she’s driving. I wonder if she’s already here or not? Or if she’ll be getting dropped off. “

He realized he hadn’t told Colin much about her other than the basics. Though the warning was simple enough to give? “She’s a student at Crystal academy. “

The name of the other institution seemed to be enough in most cases, if Talia’s talk about the place was any indication. “She’s really reasonable, though. She didn’t seem stuck up at all.”

One thing that always sucked about the fall: traffic. Kids went back to school, young adults went back to college, the work places reinvigorated ... People went back to moving. The exact opposite happened for car patterns it seemed though; everyone stopped moving.

Talia was stuck in traffic, tapping her hands against the wheel- a nervous habit that seemed to come out at the worst of times. At least the cars were moving, but she was almost at the threat of being late to being five minutes early.

She was that organized.

Eventually she made her way to the sports center, parked her car and began strutting down the street like the sidewalk was a runway. It wasn't a fashionable walk though, it was a purposeful one. Talia was honestly meant for New York City; she was always walking as though she had somewhere to go, someone to see, and a business deal to make. In essence, today she had all three.

Her outfit had been tastefully and purposefully picked out for this occasion. At first she had thought of wearing a dress and heels, but not only did that seem far too formal for a batting cage place, it also might intimidate the boys she was apparently meeting up with. Eventually she had compromised and gone for a simpler outfit. She couldn't bring herself to give up on the heels though. A pair of simple brown heels decorated her feet. She could totally do sports in these. Completely.

As she reached the building, she didn't even need to search the place for Björn and his friend. It was a bit hard to miss Björn's rather large exterior, though his friend seemed the more appropriate size. Talia sized him up in almost a second. With a wave, she finished the distance from the door to where the twosome were standing, and said, "Hi Björn!" perhaps a tad too eagerly. She brushed her bangs out of her face efficiently and said, "And Björn's friend I see. Nice to meet you." In her teenage nervousness, she forgot to mention her name.

Talia had almost forgotten that Björn hadn't yet scene her pink hair streak. Hopefully he wouldn't think too much of it. That was the hope.

Colin could only shrug a little and then take a guess, "Probably. Kind of hard to impress a girl that has everything, you know?" And he did think that making a friendship with a Crystal Academy girl was far more realistic than trying to date one. "Yeah. Some of the girls from there enter the same competitions and stuff that I do."

He had been inspecting some of the display boards as Bjorn had, but he hadn't really paid much attention to the purposeful sound of heels against the ground until they seemed to be coming straight for them. He turned, saw a very lovely girl - definitely a Crystal girl, born and bred - smile, open her mouth and say hello. So this was Talia!

"Hey Talia, it's good to finally meet you." The smile that he gave her was bright like the sun, full of warmth; after all, this girl had taken care of his roommate! Only a nice person would have done that, right? Right. The only concern he had...were her heels...but maybe she planned on ice skating? Then her pretty brown shoes wouldn't get in the way, because the sports center had those ugly black skates available for rental in almost every size under the sun.

Well, whatever - shoes didn't really. Today was going to be a lot of fun, Colin was certain this would be the case.

“We have not been here long. I’ve probably talked too much about you since meeting you, “ Though really, he wasn’t sure what too much or too little would be.

“That is sad for her, then. It will make teams a bit uneven for some activities, but I think you have the right attitude. Two all for yourself. “ He left it at that, since there was little use harping on something that couldn’t be helped. It seemed odd that a girl as pretty and kind as Talia wouldn’t have gaggles of friends. Like those packs of girls that roamed together in shopping districts four deep and giggling at him if he passed like hungry hyenas scenting a kill. It was never a safe idea to use outdoor malls as jogging places, no matter how scenic or convenient they were. Even if other people did.

“Do you think the day passes? We could do many things. If anything seems boring.” It was a question to the general consensus of the group. “The batting cages are fun, but there are many options. We don’t have to start with them if anyone is interested in something else?”

Talia couldn't help but blush a bit at Colin's comment. Even if it wasn't coming from the boy she wanted it to be coming from, a compliment was still a compliment. She was glad her persistence in picking the perfect outfit hadn't been in vain.

Day passes? Events? Talia didn't even know what was in this sports center, save for some sort of baseball because Björn had mentioned it the last time they met. Obviously she didn't know what she wanted to do!

She shot a sly look at Björn and said, "I haven't the slightest idea what kind of amusing things you can do here." She winked and then continued, this time looking at Colin, "You'll just have to pick in my stead!" She gave another laugh to the group.

It was true, Talia had never really favored this place. Sure she'd been, but it was when she was younger. She didn't know very many teenagers that hung out here for fun. It was a kid's place, but then, the arcade (her favorite niche) was as well. Besides, if Björn thought it was fun, she'd go anywhere.

The girl passed the choice on what to do first onto Colin, but she did it so cutely that he just couldn't bring himself to be frustrated. His last girlfriend had always done the same thing to him when it came to picking what to do or where to eat; Colin figured it must be a girl thing and didn't hold it against her.

"Okay then, it's up to me." He chuckled a little bit and looked over the posted signs for just a moment before making his choice, "I say we should go mini-golfing first. It's always fun and even if you've never been it's real easy to pick up."

He tilted his head at Talia, thinking that his choice was a good one - after all, he was thinking the same things his larger friend was (well, at least some of them): Talia was a highly fashionable girl wearing really cute clothing and shoes...she might not want to change into rental shoes for bowling, maybe not for ice skating either - his own sister would have sooner crawled under a rock and eaten dirt than use any of the footwear provided by places like this.

“Twenty-five dollars for the day pass, “Björn chimed back helpfully as he started towards the cashiers desk beneath the info-boards. “and…”

He craned his head back to look at the white letters on black ground again, “ It looks like they include two mini-golf games, two bowling matches, two hours on the ice and two batting cage sessions. Laser tag not included on that…it must be popular enough on its own that they prefer to keep it as a separate charge. I doubt we’ll need all of it, but it gives us options.”

There were time estimates on the boards as well! How helpful. Still, did those apply to very busy days, or just regular days? Well, that was what clerks were for. Björn made eye contact to engage the clerk, probably their own age, at the register. “How long do you think a round of golf would take about now? “

“Two hours, sir, about like a movie. If you get a hole in one on the 18th hole, it’s a free soft serve cone at the Snack Time Center. Just bring your scorecard. “

The board clearly said that the batting cage was about 100 balls in a session, 1 ball every 10 second, so about fifteen minutes of swinging for one person. The average bowling time for a team of three was listed as an hour. Well…a game of golf, a snack maybe, and then a something else? If eating something and chatting took up a half hour, then a something else …it might altogether be four hours of entertainment. Would a woman in heels want to be up and about longer than that? Could they be, physically? He didn’t really know. The shoes were super cute when women wore them, but it seemed like it must have to hobble them if worn too long.

Four hours …? That was pretty good for a first hang out, if it turned out to be fun. If not, they could call it a day after the golf and still not have lost anything. He liked the potential for fun, though. The anticipation of being out with friends…of life feeling normal was all the carrot he really needed. He tossed his money down and got his day pass in a jiffy, moving to the side of the counter for another clerk to attempt to put a neon green plastic bracelet on his wrist to signify he held a day-pass. There was no success possible with just one bracelet, and the clerk finally just Jerry-rigged two bracelets together to form one bracelet.

“Too bad it doesn’t count for two passes, ja?” He held up his wrist as joke to the other two.

Talia smiled amiably at Björn's little joke, but didn't think much of it. She was too busy admiring his husky biceps. Seriously, how did any muscle that big fit on a teenage boy, it was just way to-

Oh wait, she was staring. Talia shook her head as though she had been zoning out (quite the contrary, she had been very focused) and walked up to the cashier without a second thought. "Same as them please," she said with a wink. The cashier put on a matching neon bracelet, which Talia frowned at. This completely clashed with her outfit. That was a no-no on so many levels.

With a sour face, she turned back to the twosome. Colin was making some comment about dying his hair the smile color, to which she gave an awkward laugh. If he died his hair that color, Talia might just pretend she didn't know him. That was such a fashion faux pas.

Without another moment of time passing, she quipped, "We're ready to go then, yes?" She looked around the area. What was it they had decided on? Put-put? Talia would've gladly marched over, ahead of the pack, but there was just one problem.

She had no clue where she was going. Rather uncharacteristically, she bowed over to Björn and Colin's lead. "You'll have to lead the way," she said, with another wink.